Smallwood died at the age of 77 from complications of kidney failure on Tuesday, December 30, 2025.

Donnie McClurkin, a Grammy-winning gospel singer and pastor, sexually abused a young man over several years and wrote an apology email declaring himself a “dirty 'old man,'” according to a new lawsuit ...

Richard Smallwood, a giant of gospel music, died on December 30. For decades, the composer and recording artist infused church hymns with a contemporary sound.

Richard Smallwood, a revered singer and songwriter who scored a dozen Top 10 albums and four No. 1s on the Billboard gospel chart and amassed eight Grammy nominations during his long career, died ...

Tell-alls, streaming service deep-dives, personal essays, and artist mythologies defined 2025’s printed year in music. Paste has picked its 10 favorite music books from the last 12 months, but I’d ...

EDITOR’S NOTE: We wrote this back in 2021, but with Christmas upon us again we felt like it was the perfect time to update it. There's nothing that brings the world together more than sharing opinions ...

So there was no official song of summer. So let’s move beyond the biggest hits and check out the 10 songs we kept coming back to this year. The singer-songwriter who has worked with Miley Cyrus, ...

The Grammy-nominated singer jumped from gospel to opera to spirituals to jazz; he considered it all sacred. In 1981, an industry newcomer named Jubilant Sykes released his debut album, Number of the ...

With 2025 coming to a close, that means we've reached the halfway point for this decade. Difficult as that may be to believe, it is true, and it technically marks six full years of music, counting ...

NPR Music's list of the best 25 songs represent the upper echelon of our staff and stations' favorite discoveries from the past 12 months. For those who want to dive deeper, please check out our ...

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Pop music was not at all safe this year from the encroachments of an AI industry determined to slop-ify everything ...